— A full-size recreation of the first orbital linkup between a U.S. and a Russian spacecraft is now on the move from the Smithsonian to a museum located off historic Route 66.

The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) diorama, an opening day display at the National Air and Space Museum 50 years ago, has a new home at the Stafford Air and Space Museum in Weatherford, Oklahoma. The joint mission achieved the first "handshake in space" between Cold War rivals, astronauts and cosmonauts from the United States and Soviet Union, respectively, in July 1975.

One half of the handshake was led by Thomas Stafford, the Apollo commander and namesake of the museum established in 1993. Stafford died in 2024 at the age of 93.

"Exciting news is coming for the Stafford Air and Space Museum! The Apollo-Soyuz is coming soon," Kelsie Adams, the museum's office manager, announced in a social media video in July.

The components started arriving by truck over the past two weeks, led by the stands that will support the Apollo and Soyuz, the latter described by the Smithsonian as having been made up of spare parts. The Apollo command and service module (CSM 105) had first been used for vibration and acoustic tests prior to becoming a display piece.

Prior to arriving in Washington, D.C., the Apollo and Soyuz (or one very much like it) had been exhibited at the Paris Air Show in 1973. The Smithsonian replaced a lower fidelity mockup with the backup docking module to link the two spacecraft for its U.S. debut.

The 67-foot-long (20.4 m), 86,900-pound (39,400 kg) installation was part of the National Air and Space Museum's Space Hall for its first 21 years. The gallery was then refocused and renamed Space Race, where the ASTP was still topical and so stayed in place.

It was not until a recent nearly-billion dollar effort to renovate and reimagine all of the museum's exhibitions did the Apollo-Soyuz display lose its place. Its hall became the "RTX Living in the Space Age" gallery, refocused to examine "how, why and who of the ways in which the Space Age has transformed our lives." The exhibit was deconstructed and moved out in June 2022, when it was trucked to a storage facility at Dulles International Airport to await its delivery to the Stafford.

"The event center will be closed during the month of August as the Apollo-Soyuz travels from the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. to right here in Weatherford, Oklahoma where it will be reassembled," said Adams. "The event center will be closed until the big unveiling this fall."

Footage of the work completed by Crozier Fine Arts so far shows that the Stafford Museum will display the spacecraft rotated 180 degrees from how it was shown in the Smithsonian. When visitors enter the event center the Soyuz will be on the left and Apollo command module on the right.

The command module that carried Stafford, Vance Brand and Deke Slayton is on loan to the California Science Center by the Smithsonian. It will be back on display when the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center featuring the launchpad-like display of space shuttle Endeavour opens at Exposition Park in Los Angeles on Nov. 13.

The Soyuz descent module that landed with cosmonauts Alexei Leonov and Valery Kubasov is on display at the private RSC Energia museum in Korolev.

The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project is still represented at the National Air and Space Museum through artifacts and artwork. At the Stafford Air and Space Museum, the full-size display joins what may be the largest collection of ASTP memorabilia and artifacts on public display.